historical and scientific perspectives on the health of canada's first ...

egulatory mechanism of nature signaling the need for a progressive reduction in breastfeeding
leading to its elimination, <strong>and</strong> a corresponding transition to reliance on solid foods. 120
Abriutina, writing in Cultural Survival Quarterly, refers to the roughly 30 different Aboriginal
peoples of northern Russia (former USSR), as having inadequate health care, subst<strong>and</strong>ard living
conditions, <strong>and</strong> a compromised ecology which contribute to unacceptably high morbidity <strong>and</strong>
mortality rates. She insightfully observes that the “combination of these problems with specific
anthropo-biological peculiarities inherent to the Aboriginals of the North is significant.” She
goes on to comment:
Morbidity (the relative incidence of disease) among Northern Aboriginals is 2.5
to 10 times higher <strong>and</strong> lifespan 10 years less than among non-indigenous
populations of the North… In 1993, the incidence of tuberculosis in Chukotka
among Aboriginals was on average 17.5 times higher than that among the nonindigenous
population…. Over the last 15 years, the average age at death for
Aboriginals in my home district of Bilibino (in western Chukotka) has been about
37 years… The recommendations for organizing nutrition programs in children's
institutions in northern villages did not <strong>and</strong> still do not consider the fact that most
Aboriginals cannot process milk sugar <strong>and</strong> therefore cannot digest whole milk. A
milk-based diet is obligatory <strong>and</strong> even forced. 121
It is worthwhile to note that this state promotion <strong>and</strong> enforcement of milk in the diet of these
Aboriginal peoples is indisputably a contributing factor in their grave disease patterns, <strong>and</strong>
shortened lifespan. An article posted in the Townsend Letter for Doctors <strong>and</strong> Patients affords
documented research which shows that the ingestion of
cow's milk in humans, especially commercially processed
cow's milk <strong>and</strong> milk derived products, “has been linked to
a variety of health problems.” The range of problems
attributed to milk <strong>and</strong> dairy (cheese <strong>and</strong> butter)
consumption by weaned children, adolescents <strong>and</strong> adults
include: excessive mucus production; loss of hemoglobin;
diabetes; heart disease; atherosclerosis; arthritis; kidney
stones; mood swings <strong>and</strong> depression; irritability; <strong>and</strong>
various allergies 122
A 2005 study published in Neurology, found that middle aged males in Hawaii who were
followed for 30 years, <strong>and</strong> had a daily intake of 16 or more ounces of milk, in contrast with those
who did not drink milk, experienced a 230% (2.3 times) greater risk of developing Parkinson’s
disease. This is neurodegenerative disorder that causes slowed movements, tremor, rigidity, <strong>and</strong>
a wide variety of other symptoms due to the degeneration or death of neurons, the type of cell in
the brain that is the basis for all brain activity. 123
Lawrence Broxmeyer, a leading researcher in the field of mycobacterial associated diseases has
methodically documented the link between tubercular infection (Mycobacterium bovis <strong>and</strong>
paratuberculosis, both commonly found in milk) not only with the neurological degeneration of
Parkinson’s disease, but also the brain plaque (amyloid) disorders of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
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